"Australia's regional, rural and remote communities deserve
better communications systems and greater participation in the
digital economy," Conroy said in a statement.

The majority of the money, $46 million, will go to education, health and emergency services
projects such as remote medical consultation, diagnosis or
treatment, teleconferencing and "digital technologies" for
emergency and disaster response.

Those wanting a piece of the funds will need to complete
applications by September this year, with projects not expected to
start until early next year.

From the remainder, $11.4 million will go to extend
satellite phone subsidies for those living in areas without
terrestrial coverage to cover 85 per cent of handset cost, up from the
current 60 per cent. This would include handset replacement as long as the phone had
been bought over three years ago.

The money was also intended to increase the number of handset
subsidies for which health and emergency service organisations were
eligible. Currently only two handsets can be subsidised. The final amount, $3.7 million, would go to improving
telecommunications, internet access and computer training for
remote indigenous communities.

The government had originally earmarked $400 million to spend on
the report's recommendations, but Conroy has only dished out $60 million now, as
the report advocated spending 10 to 15 per cent of available funds
in the initial response. This leaves $340 million for later
use.

The government also intended to address other issues raised in
the report, but would not respond to recommendations which related
to the National Broadband Network until the ongoing process was
finalised.

The review was initiated by the previous government to
monitor the progress of telecommunications services in rural Australia
and determine how the interest earned from the former $2 billion Communications Fund
would be spent. The report was tabled to parliament in October last
year.

The review travelled around the regional areas and held meetings
to pin down problems.

Thank You

By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Video Services Policy. You agree to receive updates, alerts and promotions from CBS and that CBS may share information about you with our marketing partners so that they may contact you by email or otherwise about their products or services.
You will also receive a complimentary subscription to the ZDNet's Tech Update Today and ZDNet Announcement newsletters. You may unsubscribe from these newsletters at any time.